Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO seems to have been canceled as a part of an all-out layoff that hit the corporate’s gaming enterprise laborious.
This week, Amazon confirmed that it’ll not produce new content material for MMOs. new worldamid main layoffs affecting 14,000 positions on the firm. In response to a report by bloombergthese layoffs embrace “important” cuts to Amazon’s online game enterprise, which can scale back growth work and lay off employees primarily in its Irvine and San Diego places of work. Bloomberg stated Amazon is scaling again its efforts in MMOs specifically.
That sparked considerations in regards to the Lord of the Rings MMO. Now, one former developer at Amazon Video games has stated that the sport has actually fallen by the wayside within the wake of layoffs.
“This morning I used to be a part of the layoff at Amazon Video games, together with some extremely proficient of us from New Worlds and the just-formulated Lord of the Rings recreation (which I am positive you all beloved),” the developer stated in a now-deleted LinkedIn publish.
“It is all the time powerful to see such a robust workforce undergo one thing like this. I have been fortunate to work with a few of the most expert, artistic and sort builders I’ve ever met right here.”
The road “You all would have beloved it” means that The Lord of the Rings is already lifeless. Neither Amazon nor Lord of the Rings rights holder Embracer responded to videogameaddicted’s requests for remark.
Though there was “The Lord of the Rings,” Introduced in 2023In August final yr, Christoph Hartmann, head of Amazon Video games, informed videogameaddicted. It was nonetheless early days. “We’re nonetheless looking for the hook, looking for the concept of ββwhat it’s, as a result of we’re not simply going to do the identical factor over once more,” Hartman stated on the time.
“You might be tempted with an present IP, however there is not any level in doing it. It’s important to discover new twists. I believe we’re nonetheless in a interval the place we actually wish to discover out what the hook is and what makes it completely different from all the opposite video games. So it is a bit early.”
Embracer stated it wanted to “leverage it in a really important manner” by making The Lord of the Rings “one of many world’s largest recreation collection” in 2023. Embracer purchased the rights to “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit.” In August 2022, it introduced plans to discover alternatives to create new video games, motion pictures, and extra based mostly on its well-known mental property.
This is not the primary time Amazon has canceled a Lord of the Rings MMO. The Lord of the Rings MMORPG, which was first introduced in 2019, was canceled in 2021 amid a contract dispute with Tencent.
Wesley is videogameaddicted’s Director of Information. Discover me on Twitter @wyp100. Wesley might be reached at wesley_yinpoole@videogameaddicted.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.